The Tri-Cities Slam will bring teams from across North America to compete in a high-level esports competition March 6-8 at The Cave in the D.P. Culp Center. The competition kicks off Friday at 6 p.m. with free viewing. Saturday and Sunday, access is included with admission to ETSU-Con, which is free for ETSU students.
“We always love doing it alongside ETSU-Con. It’s a unique opportunity for us because there are a lot of people coming to campus that don’t really come to campus – people from the community, people who are traveling in – it’s also a really cool opportunity for us to showcase what we’ve done,” said Jeff Shell, head coach of the ETSU esports team.
The tournament will consist of Rocket League and Super Smash Bros, with $6,000 of prize money being distributed throughout the weekend. Rocket League will be the more serious competition, with 20 qualifying teams from across the U.S. and Canada competing.
“This is our biggest year yet. We’re really excited to bring Brightspeed in as our presenting sponsor,” said Shell. “We’ve really just been growing and scaling it, and now that it’s big enough that we’re getting national attention for the event, we’re really excited to work with Brightspeed on this and how we can grow now, because they see a lot of value in investing in the campus and investing in the students here at ETSU. So we’re really excited working with them to make this the biggest [tournament] so far, but we’re already cooking up how we’re going to make it bigger for next year.”
This is the third year of the Tri-Cities Slam and represents an immense amount of growth.
“In the past, the Tri-Cities Slam has been a little bit more of a regional focus competition,” said Shell. “It’s kind of where we got the name, we invited all of the schools from the area that had college esports programs like King University, Northeast State Community College, Milligan and even we had App State.”
This year, the tournament is international and will host notable esports names from across the U.S. such as Concord, West Virginia University and Oklahoma Christian.
“We also have some big-name SEC favorites, like Florida. The Gators have a very interesting team. They’re loud and passionate players, which always brings a great atmosphere,” said Shell.
This year will be the biggest Tri-Cities Slam yet, and students are encouraged to come show their support.
“Come hang out. We’re one of the few places during ETSU-Con where you can actually just sit down. So it’s a great place to just come, sit, eat lunch, watch what’s going on, then maybe decide that you want to stay around,” said Shell. You get a really intimate experience with the teams because they’ll be competing just 20 feet away.”
